Session C6: The Eel Ladders at Beauharnois Power Station, Canada
Location
Groningen, The Netherlands
Event Website
http://fishpassage.umass.edu/
Start Date
23-6-2015 4:30 PM
End Date
23-6-2015 4:45 PM
Description
Abstract:
The first anthropogenic obstacle encountered by juvenile American eel (Anguilla rostrata) in the St. Lawrence River (Canada) during their upstream migration from the Sargasso Sea, is a large hydro dam. The facility is located at Beauharnois, downstream of Lake Ontario, the largest and final growth habitat of this river system. Following preliminary tests from 1994 to 2001, the dam was equipped with a first eel ladder in 2002 on the left bank followed by a second on the right bank in 2004. Eel counts dropped from 1994 to 1998, and then increased from 1998 to 2011. In 2012 and 2013 a sharp decline of numbers was observed while 2014 presents some hope for a return to higher numbers. A strong inverse relationship (r²= 0.83) was observed between annual counts and mean annual length. In addition, an annual age-length key developed using otolith readings from 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2013 allows us to assign an age to every length-class recorded during these years. In 2004, we observed an age structure distributed from age-1 to age-21, where 83.9 % of specimens were within age-3 and age-6, and a mean age of 5.2 years (s.e. = 2.2). In 2009, the mean age had decreased to 4.1 years (s.e. = 1.8) while the age distribution had narrowed to between age-2 and age-11, with 80.0% of the specimens between 2 and 5 years old, in 2011 the mean age was 4, 4 (age-2 to age 13) and 4,8 in 2013 (age-2 to age-10). This later result reflects the decline of arrival of young eels at the Beauharnois ladders in 2012 and 2013.
Session C6: The Eel Ladders at Beauharnois Power Station, Canada
Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract:
The first anthropogenic obstacle encountered by juvenile American eel (Anguilla rostrata) in the St. Lawrence River (Canada) during their upstream migration from the Sargasso Sea, is a large hydro dam. The facility is located at Beauharnois, downstream of Lake Ontario, the largest and final growth habitat of this river system. Following preliminary tests from 1994 to 2001, the dam was equipped with a first eel ladder in 2002 on the left bank followed by a second on the right bank in 2004. Eel counts dropped from 1994 to 1998, and then increased from 1998 to 2011. In 2012 and 2013 a sharp decline of numbers was observed while 2014 presents some hope for a return to higher numbers. A strong inverse relationship (r²= 0.83) was observed between annual counts and mean annual length. In addition, an annual age-length key developed using otolith readings from 2004, 2009, 2011 and 2013 allows us to assign an age to every length-class recorded during these years. In 2004, we observed an age structure distributed from age-1 to age-21, where 83.9 % of specimens were within age-3 and age-6, and a mean age of 5.2 years (s.e. = 2.2). In 2009, the mean age had decreased to 4.1 years (s.e. = 1.8) while the age distribution had narrowed to between age-2 and age-11, with 80.0% of the specimens between 2 and 5 years old, in 2011 the mean age was 4, 4 (age-2 to age 13) and 4,8 in 2013 (age-2 to age-10). This later result reflects the decline of arrival of young eels at the Beauharnois ladders in 2012 and 2013.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2015/June23/44
Comments
Presenting Author Bio: After some 15 years as a free-lance Limnologist, Mr. Jean Caumartin has joined Hydro-Québec in 2000 as an Environment advisor. He is currently involved on crossboundaries projects dealing with fish of the St-Lawrence River, mainly American eels and American shad. He has Master degree in Biology, specialized in limnology since 1986.